Guides musical a nostalgia trip

Press, 25 August 1988, Page 9

Guides musical a nostalgia trip

From guide leaders sporting mini-skirts and long earrings to pippins in frog suits, the Canterbury girl guides’ musical is full of fun. The 60-member cast of “Celebrate ’88” may have dropped a line or two and hung an occasional prop upside down on their opening night last evening but this was more than made up for in humour and enthusiasm. The guides, rangers and

leaders, ranging in age from 10 to 60, entertained with a variety of songs, skits and dances, encompassing everything from camping to conservation. After opening the production with two skits entitled “No Rest for the Wicked” and “The Time Machine,” they took the audience through a series of songs marking camps and jamborees from 1930 to 1988.

Anyone who has ever been involved in guiding could not help but be drawn into a nostalgia trip by some traditional campfire ditties. The brownies brushed up on their semaphore skills and leaders demonstrated the unsuitability of wearing mini-skirts, earrings and high heels with uniforms. The performers donned international regalia for

some of the songs and folk dances before switching to the conservation theme. Throughout the musical several amusing skits were acted, one of which involved two leaders taking a sip of “youth elixir” and leaving the stage as pippins. This first Canterbury provincial musical in 20 years more than made up for lost time.